do u mean by pulling the cold air down by using a fan blowing away from the bottom of stairs towards the center of my basement??. My coal stove is approx. 10 feet from the bottom of the stairs. The stairs come down into the middle of the basement itself. I do have oil heat down there with a boiler but it is baseboard heat so no duct work to use

in our ranch house layout (with the stoker in the basement) the warm air goes up the open basement steps (no door or walls at top). I have the floor vent in the back bedroom (point furthest from the stairwell and always the coolest location) with flex duct dropped to the basement floor. The cool air falls through this floor vent/duct and that actually pulls warmer air into that bedroom.

I do get some cool air falling down the basement steps too.

your layout may have to do something similar. start at the coolest location at the ends of the house and put the floor vent there with flex duct to the basement floor. Let the experimentation begin!!

Putting fans in a duct below the vents will help, but you'll need a fan at each vent. And it will also use additional electricity.

To keep the system passive (no electricity needed), you can create a "convection loop". You use the difference in weight of the heavier cold air upstairs, verses the lighter warm air in the basement to naturally move them where you want them. Gravity will be the driving force.

To better understand warm verses cold vents, it might be easier to think of them as two types of vents, "short" and "tall".

The "short" vents only go through the floor. They will let the warm air up.

The "tall" vents also go through the floor, but they have duct work that extends them almost to the basement floor. They let the cold air go down.

By having some air vents open to the warm air at the basement ceiling, and using other vents with ducts that extend the cold air vent opening down near the basement floor, you naturally prevent the cold air upstairs from damming up the warm air vents. That difference in duct length "steers" the air to form a convection loop. Then the upstairs heavier cold air will sink to the basement floor pushing the warm basement air up through the warm air vents.

If you have rooms that you close the door and you want them to stay warm, the closed door will short-circuit the loop. Therefore, you have to give each room their own convection loop. In other words, a cold air return vent and a warm air vent in each room.

titleist1 wrote:in our ranch house layout (with the stoker in the basement) the warm air goes up the open basement steps (no door or walls at top). I have the floor vent in the back bedroom (point furthest from the stairwell and always the coolest location) with flex duct dropped to the basement floor. The cool air falls through this floor vent/duct and that actually pulls warmer air into that bedroom.

I do get some cool air falling down the basement steps too.

your layout may have to do something similar. start at the coolest location at the ends of the house and put the floor vent there with flex duct to the basement floor. Let the experimentation begin!!

This is a good starting point. Get the coldest air down to the basement floor. It will have greater convection driving force the colder it is.

Should I install fans on the basement ceiling to push air up through the vents or just have a fan on the basement floor moving the air around. Like I said this is all new to me so just looking for all the help I can get at this point

This is what I what I would try first. A couple little fans on the basement ceiling to push warm air up thru the vents.

it is very hard for new folks to understand the dynamics of air, heat, draft and flow (I too think the vents are doing the exact opposite of what you intended them to do). depending on location of basement door / stove... i would put as large a vent as possible above the stove with a booster fan up then place a smaller vent with no fan way over their>>>>>>> opposite side of house from stove. Then you dont have to keep your basement door open. This will hopefully create enough of a correct flow to satisfy.... if not.... come back and we will take the next steps

I also have a Alaska channing 3, have it installed in unfinished basement. (Ranch house) I had a 7 inch cold air return installed from bedroom upstairs back to stoker (farthest room upstairs) and reduced 7 inch to 6 inch and installed flex hose to convection blower of stoker.(265 cfm) So warm air comes up cellar stairs through kitchen, living room and finally is pulled (vacuum) through cold air vent in bedroom down the hall. I have created a convection loop. I also placed a filter at vent. I have also put in line a cold air booster blower (365 cfm) to help cold air return turn more volume over. 1100 sq ft home (basement also 1100 sq ft) and I do not burn any oil all winter!

I used one inch foil backed styrofoam insulation board and built a hood over my stove in the basement and directed the heat from it thru a vent in the floor. not rapid heat but a lot better than just cutting vents. you could try a small fan on vent farthest from stove blowing down in basement. much easier to move cold air down.